246 ENGLISH JOURNEY

the profit on the Hostel. It looked a good place. There is an
amusing little theatre on the premises, with a room below
filled with bits of scenery, half-painted canvas cloths, odd
"props." There are reading,* chess and card-rooms. I was
told by one of the officials that the Club had a contract
bridge team; this is the first time I have heard of working
men playing contract bridge, to say nothing of playing in
tournaments. There is a chess team too. If I lived in the
district I do not suppose I should be able to win a place
in either team, but it would not be for want of trying, for I
should certainly spend a lot of my time in that Club. It is
a rather old-fashioned building and needs some brighter
decoration, but with its cosiness, recreations and companion-
ship, it must seem like heaven after those long dark slummy
Liverpool streets. The Hostel is next door, and an enormous
establishment. A man can live there on one-and-ninepence
a day, but he will not have to be very sensitive about his
surroundings. It has a very grim institution look. The dis-
tempered walls and old-fashioned tiles cry at once: "No
nonsense here, my man.55 That hundreds of men have been
glad of its existence I have no doubt whatever; but I cannot
imagine one of them, returning after an absence, breaking
down in the hall and sobbing at the sight of the dear old
hostel. Nowadays it is only about half-full, because of the
trade depression, which means that there are fewer casual
labourers and the like drifting into the city. But though only
half-full it smelt completely full. It was not exactly a dirty
smell—for the place was clean enough and, I should imagine,
well disinfected—but it was like that of the thick air that
meets you when entering the Underground. The dining-
room was very large and had a counter in one corner, where
you bought your food. I saw a man buying a plate of stewed
steak. This was sixpence and the dearest item on the menu;
but you got a good plateful. The lodgers all have boxes ia